


A Trick of the Mind

by Morgane (smilla840)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: LITERALLY, M/M, Spoilers for episodes 1 & 2, Tahiti is a Magical Place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-15
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-29 12:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1005599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilla840/pseuds/Morgane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tahiti really is a magical place. Not that Phil would know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Trick of the Mind

**Author's Note:**

> Set between episodes 2 & 3 of AOS, with spoilers for the first two episodes.

Phil remembers Tahiti. 

He remembers the view from his window, with its postcard-perfect beach and turquoise water. He remembers physio kicking his ass, and the boredom that threatened to drive him mad.

He remembers Clint showing up one day out of the blue and never leaving. Remembers Clint asleep next to him, the taste of salt on his skin and the flex of his muscles as he shot arrows in the backyard. Remembers Clint bringing him coffee in the mornings and cajoling him out of bed when everything hurt. How his smile never failed to make him feel better, even on the bad days.

Yes, Phil remembers Tahiti. Sometimes he thinks Clint is the only reason he made it back.

There is only one problem though.

Phil’s never been to Tahiti. 

Neither has Clint, for that matter.

\--

Phil doesn’t remember the trip back to New York. The doctors talk about stress and say it’s nothing to worry about, but it bothers him. As it is, he goes to sleep in Tahiti one evening and wakes up with a crick in his neck the next day, one he recognizes from having spent too many nights on his office couch. And indeed when he opens his eyes he finds himself in his office at SHIELD’s New York HQ, with Fury sitting in his chair and watching him closely.

“That’s creepy, boss,” he mumbles. His voice sounds hoarse and his mouth is dry. Fury pushes a glass of water towards him and he takes it gratefully.

“Thanks.” Phil’s already feeling more like himself, though he’s got the strangest memory of himself waking up in Medical – he must have been dreaming about it.

“How was Tahiti?” Fury asks, and there is something about his tone that sets off alarms in Phil’s head. He wonders if this is about Clint – was he not supposed to be there?

“Relaxing,” he answers cautiously, and Fury seems satisfied by that. 

“Good.”

“Did we just invent teleportation? Because I could have sworn…” He trails off, looking around for some clue, and sees luggage by the door.

“You don’t remember the trip back?” Fury asks, and Phil frowns, thinking back. Logically he knows he must have flown, and if he concentrates he can drudge up the vague memory of a plane and falling asleep on Clint’s shoulder until gentle hands had nudged him out of his seat and into a car, but it resembles so many others that it may just be his brain tricking him with an easy answer.

“I guess I do,” he answers with more confidence than he feels, because it looks like it matters a great deal to Fury and Phil wouldn’t want to disappoint. 

“Well, you can bring it up with Dr Streiten. You’ve got an appointment with him in one hour. Come see me after, I’ve got a job for you.”

Phil nods, and figures out something else that’s missing.

“Where’s Barton?” he asks, and Fury pauses minutely on his way to the door.

“Assignment with Romanoff,” he says shortly, and then he is gone.

Phil leans back on the couch and sighs. He isn’t surprised, not really – SHIELD’s already been more patient than he thought they’d be. 

Still, he wishes he had been awake to say goodbye.

\--

The thing with Streiten goes well enough. 

Phil is in top shape, physio and plenty of rest having done their job. In fact, he feels better than he has in months, with none of the little twinges and pains that had plagued his days in Tahiti. It must mean it was time to come back – not that Streiten will take his word for it, of course. He pokes and probes and runs too many tests. He also asks a lot of questions about Tahiti, and Phil answers them all patiently. He knows he has to if he wants to be cleared for duty, and Streiten already seems reluctant to do so. Phil isn’t about to give him an excuse.

But Streiten does sign off on his immediate reinstatement, and there is a bounce in Phil’s steps as he makes his way to Fury’s office. He reaches it just as Maria is leaving, and she looks like she’s just come face to face with a ghost when she sees him.

“Come on, I wasn’t gone that long,” he says with a grin, and she finally smiles. It’s a little shaken but that’s okay. He missed her too.

“Phil, you’re back!” She reaches out but stops herself before her hand can connect with Phil’s arm. It hovers in the air between them before she brings it back to her side. “How was Tahiti?” 

“Beautiful. A bit boring too, but it got the job done.”

“Great, that’s great.” She’s still staring, and Phil is starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Did he get sunburned? “Well, you’d better go in. Can’t keep the Director waiting.” 

“No, we can’t. Want to grab dinner later?”

This time her smile is genuine and bright. “Sure. I’ll see you later.”

That was a little strange, he contemplates as he knocks on the door, but he pushes the thought aside at Fury’s “Enter” and gets his head back in the game.

He’ll talk to her about it at dinner.

\--

Fury tells him he’s putting together an investigative team and he wants Phil to head it. He’s got a list of names for him to consider – Hill’s been vetting them –, and as Phil flips through them, he’s only got one question:

“What about the Avengers, sir?”

Fury looks down for a split second before meeting his eyes head on.

“They think you’re dead – well, Thor is still in Asgard so I’ve got no idea what he sees from up there, but you catch my drift,” he says. “In fact, no one below Level 7 knows you survived.”

Phil has to take a couple of seconds to digest that. It’s unexpected, to say the least, and he isn’t sure what Fury is hoping to achieve with the lie. He understands the initial motivation, but keeping up the front for so long? Phil thinks it was a mistake. But the harm is done now, and it’s too late to fix it. At least Clint and Natasha know, though it’s going to put them in an awkward position when the truth comes out.

“You know Stark will find out eventually. It’s not going to help our relationship with them,” Phil still feels the need to point out, and Fury shrugs.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

“Okay. I’ll try not to say I told you so.”

Fury looks at him weirdly, a bit like Maria did just minutes before, and Phil frowns.

“What?” he asks defensively.

“Nothing. I just missed you, I guess. Are you sure you’re ready to go back into the field?”

“You’re going soft on me, boss?” Phil teases, and Fury scoffs, more like himself.

“Hardly.” He seems to hesitate then, and when he opens his mouth again he is just Nick. “Phil, about Barton… I promise I’ll make things right and call him back as soon as possible. But he and Romanoff are off comms for this op and, well, you know.”

Phil waves him off. He and Clint have never asked for special treatment but he appreciates the concern. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve just had him to myself for months, I can live without my husband for a few weeks.”

Nick looks taken aback for a split second, but his expression smooths over quickly. Not many people would have caught it but Phil knows him, knows his tells. Clint definitely wasn’t supposed to be in Tahiti.

“Okay then. I expect to hear from you about your team by the end of the week.”

“Will do.” He goes, dismissed.

\--

Phil gets temporary quarters at HQ and is told to stick to the Level 7 restricted areas. It doesn’t really matter to him one way or another – with Clint out of the country, he doesn’t care that he can’t go home just yet. 

It doesn’t take him long to feel like he never left. He spends most of his time working, putting his team together and getting them approved. Not everything is the same though. His suits look identical but he can tell they’re all new, and they don’t fit quite right. Then there is his colleagues’ reaction to his return, which he finds disproportionate compared to how long he’s actually been gone. It might be a manifestation of some left-over trauma from the attack, his sudden reappearance among them a reminder of those who will never come back, and Phil makes a note to check with Psych if something’s being done about it. 

“People are being weird,” he still complains to Maria over dinner a couple of days later, because he just isn’t used to all the attention.

“What do you mean?” she asks, pushing her food around, and Phil shrugs, a study in nonchalance.

“They stare a lot. Matthews hugged me yesterday, and Jasper looked like he was going to cry.”

Her expression tightens minutely. “What can I say, you’re a popular guy. We missed you around here,” she says with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. 

Phil smiles back blandly and switches the subject to whether Ward will be able to work as part of a team. 

Maria just lied to him.

\---

That night Phil dreams about Tahiti. Clint is there – Clint is always there –, but everything else feels strange. They’re walking on the beach, and there are children playing soccer and fishermen on their boats and, and Phil gets the feeling he’s done this before, this exact same walk at this exact same moment. Any second now the boy in red will send the ball into the ocean, and he does, right on cue.

Phil wakes up feeling vaguely anxious. He can’t quite put his finger on why, but he thinks it’s got something to do with Clint.

He isn’t supposed to use SHIELD’s servers to assuage his own peace of mind but he does it anyway. He logs on to access Clint’s file and check on the mission’s progress – even in silent mode there are still drops they have to make so SHIELD will know to send the cavalry should they miss one – and finds it restricted. He frowns, tries Natasha’s and then, on a whim, his own, only to get the same result each time. Tension mounting, he tries to tell himself IT got something wrong when they reinstated him, keeping him locked out of some of the personnel files, but he knows he is grasping at straws – he’s got access to everything else, it seems like a very specific oversight. However there are more pressing matters at hand, namely figuring out what op Clint is on. 

It takes a while to cross-reference on-going missions with Clint’s and Natasha’s skillsets but eventually Phil parses it together. Except what he finds doesn’t make any sense. 

It says Clint’s been gone for ten days. 

Phil remembers him in Tahiti just last week.

Someone must have made a mistake on the date, he reasons, except when he reads further he sees they’ve made their Day 7 drop on time, three days ago.

What’s going on? 

Phil calls back his memories of Tahiti, something he hasn’t had time to indulge in often with his workload, and the more he thinks about it the more they all seem to hold the same quality as the dream. How did he not notice before that he is always doing the same things in them? As much as he’d like to put it down to monotony of life on an island and his strict physio schedule, he can’t stop thinking about it now. The view from his window was always the same, picture-perfect, and it was always sunny, the weather as unchangeable as the scenery, which is just wrong considering he left Tahiti in the middle of the wet season. Yet Phil can’t remember a drop of rain.

Clint is the only thing that’s always changing in his memories, and that’s what stops Phil from heading straight to Medical. Instead he carefully examines his options. He’s got two, as far as he can tell. Either Clint wasn’t in Tahiti these past few months, or _Phil_ wasn’t.

The first option isn’t very comforting. It would mean something or someone was impersonating Clint the whole time, and while Phil knows it’s technically possible, he’d like to think he knows his husband well enough to spot an imposter. And that wouldn’t explain the memories. Of course Phil could also have been hallucinating Clint’s presence, in which case what he remembers would hardly be reliable, but he’s just passed a battery of medical and psychological tests with flying colours and he’d hope they would have detected that sort of thing.

Which leaves him with option number two. But if Phil wasn’t in Tahiti recuperating, then where was he? How did he get from wounded to here and what–

Oh, shit.

If he died and Fury brought him back as a LMD, Phil is going to be pissed. He distinctly remembers signing a directive that made his wishes on the matter perfectly clear after a long conversation with Clint, and if the Director went against them there will be hell to pay. 

He knows what to look for, but it takes him a very long time to work up the courage to check. The relief when he does makes him a little light-headed and he has to close his eyes for a long minute to get himself back under control. 

So if Phil isn’t a LMD and he wasn’t in Tahiti, he must have been in a coma or some sort of stasis. He can only think of two things that could have brought him out of it perfectly healthy: magic or a medical break-through. He can’t imagine why Fury would keep the latter a secret – Phil already knows about Extremis, after all –, so magic it is.

What the hell has Fury done?

\---

The next time someone asks him about Tahiti, Phil says it was magical. 

He says it again every time after that.

He watches people’s faces and catalogues their reactions. And as it becomes clear Fury isn’t going to tell him anything any time soon, he starts looking for clues to figure it out himself.

Mostly he waits for Clint to come back, and he worries. Because if all he remembers is a lie then he’s got no idea how Clint has really been dealing with Loki or Phil being wounded. When Clint had showed up in Tahiti, he had been mostly fine and they hadn't really talked about it. Looking back now, Phil can see how out of character that had been for both of them. Does Clint even know he is awake?

At least he’s in the field, Phil tries to reassure himself. That must mean he is coping. 

Natasha will keep an eye on him.

\---

His team’s first field mission puts a wrench in Phil’s detective work and keeps him busy. After California there is Peru, and as they watch the 0-8-4 fly towards the stars, Phil feels a deep satisfaction at the way the team is coming along. He doesn’t fool himself into thinking it’ll be all smooth sailing from here on out – Melinda is still pissed at him, Ward is still very much not a team player, FitzSimmons still think they’re on some grand adventure, and Skye… well, he’ll need to keep an eye on Skye, in case being around classified information all day proves to be too tempting. But he has high hopes for her, and her hacking skills would be very useful in finding out what SHIELD’s trying to hide from him.

When Fury shows up to inspect the damage on the bus Phil knows something is up. The Director of SHIELD has better things to do with his time than check on some repairs, but he doesn’t say anything and so Phil doesn’t ask – he knows that won’t get him anywhere. Still, he isn’t surprised when his phone rings a day later and Fury tells him to get his ass back to HQ ASAP. Clint is on his way home.

Phil makes sure everyone’s settled – Fitz has decided he was supervising the work done to the bus, with Simmons supervising _him_ , and Ward wants to get started on Skye’s training –, and Melinda flies him back to HQ. Phil tries to keep his face impassive, but judging by the smirk on her face when she drops him off on the roof, he isn’t entirely successful. Maria is there waiting for him and his anticipation gives way to worry. She doesn’t look happy about something.

“The Director wants to see you. _Now_.”

“Is Clint okay?” he asks her as they make their way down.

“He isn’t hurt,” she says, which is hardly the same thing. He wants to press for details but she shakes her head sharply and they walk in silence all the way to Fury’s office. She waves him in but doesn’t come inside, and Phil has a really bad feeling about this.

“What’s going on, boss?” he asks with a calm he doesn’t feel as he takes a seat.

Fury clasps his hands in front of him and looks at him steadily. “You’ve got to understand, your face’s been all over the news.” 

“You didn’t kill the story?” Phil asks, a bit thrown by the choice of topic. He had thought the thing with Mike Peterson might make waves, but SHIELD’s never had any trouble covering things up before and Fury hadn’t mentioned it when he had last seen him. Why is he bringing it up now?

“We did. But then the internet got involved and good luck keeping it under wrap after that. We’ve had to declassify your status, everybody knows about Tahiti. The Avengers aren’t happy.”

As if on cue, Fury’s phone rings. He grabs the receiver, lifts it two inches in the air and then hangs up in the same movement. Phil raises an eyebrow.

“Stark has been calling me every ten minutes,” Fury says, sounding mildly harassed, and Phil has to bite back a reluctant smile despite the circumstances because hey. _Told you so._

Fury narrows his eye at him dangerously before a glance down seems to make him bite back the scathing comment that’s obviously on the tip of his tongue. Instead he takes a deep breath and says very carefully:

“Barton came back from his op three hours ago. He spent the first getting Romanoff situated in Medical – she’ll be fine –” he adds, forestalling Phil’s question. “But someone must have told him. He quit five minutes after that.”

Phil goes from relief to complete incomprehension in a heartbeat. He opens his mouth to say… something, he doesn’t know what – _‘Is this some sort of joke?’_ maybe, because quite frankly it’s the only thing that makes sense –, but then Fury is sliding something across his desk and won’t meet his eyes. When he takes his hand away Phil understands even less and all he can do is stare.

“I think I’m supposed to give this to you. He wasn’t very clear about that,” Fury says quietly but Phil isn’t really listening because that’s Clint’s _wedding ring_ and it makes about as little sense as Clint resigning unless– 

He is on his feet so fast his chair almost ends up on the floor.

“What did you _do_?” he asks, grabbing the ring and holding it protectively.

Fury sighs. “Phil, sit down.”

Phil doesn’t sit down. A deadly sense of calm settles over him.

“Tell me now, or you can expect my resignation letter alongside my husband’s,” he states coolly and stares Fury down until the man deflates.

“You died,” he says, which is a good place to start except Phil already knows that part. 

“Yes, I died. It took eight seconds for the paramedics to–”

“No. You died, and you stayed dead. For five months.”

Phil hears the words but they don’t really register. It seems such a secondary concern at the moment, all that matters is Clint.

“What. Did. You. Do?” he asks again through gritted teeth.

Fury smiles humourlessly. “I didn’t do anything. There was nothing to _be_ done, you were gone. Then three weeks ago, Thor’s mom showed up.”

“His mother?”

“Yeah. Nice lady. Said her son had to make amends for the pain he had caused.”

“What did Thor do?” This isn’t making any sense.

“No. Her other son.” A shiver runs down Phil’s spine. “There is a ritual Asgardians go through to atone for their crimes. They’re supposed to undo what they’ve done or make reparations, purge themselves from all the negativity or whatever mumbo jumbo they believe in – as if I cared about that bastard’s peace of mind.”

“What happened?” An image is already forming in his mind – one he doesn’t like much – but he needs to hear Fury say it.

“Well she brought him here. Don’t know why she bothered, that snake had no intention of doing anything, kept trying to weasel out of it. You see, if he didn’t do the deed himself, it technically isn’t his to undo, no matter how responsible he is – something about the Asgardian wording. So that left–”

“Me,” Phil says numbly. “Loki brought me back.” 

He thinks he is going to be sick.

Fury nods.

“What about… what about Tahiti?” Phil asks, because none of this explains what he remembers.

“Don’t worry, that was Frigga. We wouldn’t let Loki anywhere near your memories. Apparently no living soul is supposed to know of what goes on in Valhalla – that’s where you were, according to her –, but she said you had to remember _something_ or you would drive yourself mad trying to recover the memories of the time you had lost. You had always said you wanted to go to Tahiti, so…”

“Yeah. On my _honeymoon_ , which got cancelled,” Phil snaps, suddenly angry. Which is weird because he should be relieved – he was dead and now he isn’t, that’s _good_ –, except it seems he’s got Loki to thank for it and the last thing Phil wants is to owe that man anything.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

“What about Clint?” he asks too calmly.

“What about him?”

“He was there. In Tahiti. Was that your idea as well?”

“No. That was all you.”

“You’re saying I made him up?”

“What do _you_ think?”

Phil thinks it was his brain’s way of handling the whole thing because he couldn’t deal with five months worth of memories without Clint in it, but he isn’t going to admit that out loud. 

“Who else knows?” he asks instead.

“That you were really dead? Just me, Hill and Streiten. The other Level 7s got a memo the day you came back where I ‘apologised’ for lying and said you had been in Tahiti recuperating the whole time.”

“And Clint?”

“I thought he deserved better than an email – which he wouldn’t have had access to, not on this op. I would have told him the second he got back, I _swear_ , except you ended up on TV and your return from the dead was all everyone would talk about by the time he got back. He wouldn’t give me a chance to explain.”

Fury looks tired and apologetic, but the numbness is back and Phil doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about anything except:

“I… have to go,” he says, turning towards the door.

“Phil, I’m–”

“No.” Some of the anger is back and Phil welcomes it. “I’m going to fix this, and then you and I will talk. Put my team on stand down.”

As he leaves Fury’s office, he distantly hears the phone start ringing again. 

\--

Phil makes his way home on autopilot. His mind feels hazy, and he tries to hang on to the anger because it’s the only thing that seems to clear it but he doesn’t quite manage. It might be just as well: he can’t be angry when he talks to Clint, who’s the least to blame here.

Intellectually Phil knows he isn’t pissed at Fury, not really. The man probably thought he was protecting him, and frankly judging by the way Phil feels knowing he’s got _Loki_ to thank for bringing him back, maybe he had a point. Christ, how is _Clint_ going to feel about it? 

No, Nick did the best he could with what he had. Sure, he could have done _better_ , that way Clint wouldn’t have found out his husband was alive – still? again? – from someone else, but that would have meant stopping their op half-way through. Phil knows who they were after, knows it was important. It’s just bad luck he became an internet sensation on his first job back. 

Still Fury does make a convenient target, because right now Clint thinks Phil’s been lying to him for six months. That he let him believe he was dead with no regard for Clint’s feelings or the vows he took. Of course that’s what Clint thinks. Phil was dead and then he wasn’t. Miraculous resurrection isn’t the first thing that jumps to people’s mind, even in their line of work. 

He finds himself in front of their apartment’s door and realises he doesn’t have his keys. Has no idea where his keys are, in fact – probably somewhere inside if protocol was followed and his personal effects were handed over to Clint. Phil doesn’t want to contemplate what that must have been like.

He has no choice but to knock, because he is _not_ picking the lock. For a moment nothing happens, and he’s wondering if Clint’s home – hell, if he even still lives here – when the door finally opens.

Clint looks like shit, eyes red and sunken from too little sleep, and Phil can’t tell whether it’s usual mission stress or everything else.

They stare at each other for what feels like a lifetime, and then Clint slams the door in his face.

Phil knows it’s not rational, but it hurts all the same.

“Clint, please,” he begs, and when the door doesn’t answer he tries the handle. Finds it unlocked. It’s probably not the invitation Phil decides to take it for, but he goes in anyway. 

Don’t get him wrong, if he had done what Clint thinks he did, Phil would like to believe he would respect his wish to never see him again – that’d be all he would deserve. But he didn’t, and he has to at least tell Clint that.

Clint is in their bedroom shoving clothes into a bag jerkily, with none of his usual economy of movement. He ignores Phil, who only can stare. Clint… Clint looks like a stranger. Phil knows all too well what grief can do to a man, but he hasn’t had time to consider what it’d have done to Clint and he is thoroughly unprepared for a visual demonstration. 

“Clint, please,” he tries again, reaching out despite knowing his touch won’t be welcomed. It’s hard to tell his brain otherwise though, because it’s still half-convinced that they were happy together less than a month ago.

Clint rounds on him and Phil takes an involuntary step back at the fury he sees on his face. Their relationship has had its ups and downs, especially in the beginning, and they’ve had their fair share of arguments, but never like this.

“No. _No._ You don’t get to talk to me,” Clint says. “Six months, Phil. For six months I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”

His face crumbles and Phil changes his mind because _this_ , this is so much worse than the anger. He never wants to see that much anguish on Clint’s face ever again, never mind know that he caused it. He reaches out again, not because he thinks he’ll get a different result this time but because he can’t _not_.

Clint side-steps his hand and turns away from him, a fine tremor running through his shoulders. 

“Three weeks ago I was in Tahiti,” Phil says quietly, not sure if Clint will listen or storm out but he’s got to try. Clint doesn’t move, and he tells himself it’s a good sign. “I was in Tahiti, and then I was here and you were on an op, but it didn’t really matter because I had seen you the day before.”

That gets Clint to look at him, incomprehension clear on every line of his face.

“Except I wasn’t, not really, I was dead and then I– wasn’t.”

That’s when it all really hits him – he was actually _dead for five months_ – and Phil has to put a hand on the wall for support. Clint’s the one reaching out then, almost reflexively, and so Phil reaches back just as cautiously. His hand grasps Clint’s forearm just as Clint’s closes around his shoulder, and they both hold on with more force than is strictly comfortable. Clint is looking worried, and Phil gives himself a shake. He can’t fall apart now. He needs to be there for Clint, who’s been dealing with this for six months – if he’ll let him.

“I don’t understand,” Clint says. He sounds completely bewildered, and Phil pushes himself away from the wall, moving closer to him when Clint doesn’t step back – doesn’t let go.

“Magic – real magic. Some kind of Asgardian ritual, according to Fury.”

“You believe him?”

Which is a fair question, considering, but:

“Yeah.”

“Fuck, Phil…”

They move at the same time, and less than a heartbeat later Phil’s got the hard length of Clint’s body pressed against his, his arms wrapped tightly around him. Clint makes a wounded sound against his neck, and Phil never wants to let go. _‘This is real,’_ he thinks and closes his eyes, burying his face in Clint’s shoulder.

They hold on to each other for a long time, and when Clint pulls back, Phil reluctantly doesn’t follow.

“I’m so pissed at you for dying,” Clint says, rubbing his eyes. “It feels like I’ve been pissed at you for months. Never quite moved past the anger stage.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Dying – leaving Clint – had never been part of the plan. 

Clint looks away and crossed his arms over his chest, hugging himself protectively. “So where do we go from here?”

Phil doesn’t have a ready answer. He wants to pick up where they left off, jump straight back into a relationship his mind insists never really ended, but he knows it won’t be that easy for Clint. He’s had to learn to live without him for six months and Phil has no idea what that was like, how he coped. He wants Clint to tell him but he doesn’t want to push either. Besides, Phil still has to process everything that happens to him, and Loki is going to have to come up soon – so is Clint’s resignation letter, though he knows Fury will welcome him back any time he wants. 

But they’re both here. 

They’re both alive. 

Clint’s wedding ring is in his pocket – his own probably somewhere in the apartment – and he can keep it safe until Clint wants it back. They’ve got time to work things out.

“Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?” he asks, and Clint’s smile is all the answer he needs.


End file.
